Sort of a complicated question, I'll try to ask. How was I born me and not another?

[LastPoet]

Is this about a guy Theseus and his ship? Am I the same ship as when born? Some original parts might even be someone else.

[Cato]

I think the OP has some fundamental misunderstanding about what the 'me' is. On page three, he/she betrays a thought that consciousness is somehow disconnected and infused in the meat sack after the fact. It's the only way to make sense of the question "why wasn't I somebody else". It's either this misunderstanding or a gross misconception of what happens between fucking and birth and early childhood development.

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

I think the OP has some fundamental misunderstanding about what the 'me' is. On page three, he/she betrays a thought that consciousness is somehow disconnected and infused in the meat sack after the fact. It's the only way to make sense of the question "why wasn't I somebody else". It's either this misunderstanding or a gross misconception of what happens between fucking and birth and early childhood development.

I realize my question was probably poorly stated, but please don't make the insulting mistake of confusing me with someone who thinks the mind and body are separate. I take offense to being lumped in with people who could think such ignorant things.

[thesummerqueen]

The fact that the mind and body aren't separate is the reason you are you and not someone else.

If you were born to someone else, you wouldn't still be the person you are right now, just born in a different situation. You would be an entirely different person - born to different genetics, exposed to different experiences.

You are you because you were born to human parents in a specific set of circumstances, to a specific set of cell divisions in the womb, to a specific set of experiences, which were equally influenced by your own prior experiences, knowledge, and intellectual capabilities/emotional coping mechanisms.

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

The fact that the mind and body aren't separate is the reason you are you and not someone else.

If you were born to someone else, you wouldn't still be the person you are right now, just born in a different situation. You would be an entirely different person - born to different genetics, exposed to different experiences.

You are you because you were born to human parents in a specific set of circumstances, to a specific set of cell divisions in the womb, to a specific set of experiences, which were equally influenced by your own prior experiences, knowledge, and intellectual capabilities/emotional coping mechanisms.

Yeah I know that the probability of being born as someone else is just the same as being born me. I understand that. The whole point of the question, which everyone in this thread seems to bafflingly be missing, is that I am wondering if there's the same probability of not being born at all, or just being born a different species. Because you know there's a lot of species on this planet, and I think it's awfully chancy that I was born to the human species. I also wonder, since I am made of matter, was there an equal chance of me not becoming anything at all, and just being some random particles, or some water flowing down a river, or part of an astroid that never made it to earth. We all come from the universe, so why am I me and not out there as just another part of the universe.

[FatAndFaithless]

You couldn't be born as a different species because then you wouldn't be "you" anymore. It's not like your mind would just be inhabiting a cat's body or something. The only possible set of circumstances that could result in "you" are the set of circumstances of which you are currently a product.

[LastPoet]

Yeah I know that the probability of being born as someone else is just the same as being born me. I understand that. The whole point of the question, which everyone in this thread seems to bafflingly be missing, is that I am wondering if there's the same probability of not being born at all, or just being born a different species. Because you know there's a lot of species on this planet, and I think it's awfully chancy that I was born to the human species. I also wonder, since I am made of matter, was there an equal chance of me not becoming anything at all, and just being some random particles, or some water flowing down a river, or part of an astroid that never made it to earth. We all come from the universe, so why am I me and not out there as just another part of the universe.

B-mine

It would be harder to type that nonsense if you were another animal or a plant. I really don't think your question even pertains to science. More like philosophy-esque.

[Alex K]

So, I have been wondering for some time why I was born me and not someone or something else. Doesn't it seem a bit strange, to have come into the consciousness of a body? We just happen to be one animal out of so many species of animal that have existed on this planet. I wonder how it all came to be, how I was born me and not a dog, and why do I feel consciousness when there's trillions of cells in my body that don't have brains of their own. My hands, my feet, they all have living organisms inside of them, and somehow these are a part of me? It's all so strange, I wish that there were some answers to basically explain my existence.

Or hell, there's so many types of matter, I could have just as easily have been a rock.

Maybe you WERE born as someone else instead of you! How would you know the difference?

Mind blown.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, I think I found a better way to state the question. Everything from the start of the universe, all the particles in the known universe come from the big bang, or as carl sagan would say, we're all made of star dust. So if I'm just made of star dust, and the rock around me or the cup on my desk are also made of star dust, then out of all the other matter on earth that came from the same place, why did I just happen to become a human being? All the hamburgers that everyone consumes that become babies that mothers give birth to, that came from the hamburgers that their mothers made. I guess it's sort of comforting in a way, because even if your consciousness is destroyed, even if all your memories are disintegrated, once you decompose you go back to the stuff that made you up in the first place. I just wonder, what was the journey like from me being inanimate material to becoming a living, sentient organism.

Remember that you are throughout your life not even made of the same atoms - they get exchanged all the time. In your sense, you're not even the same person as you were a few years ago.

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

You couldn't be born as a different species because then you wouldn't be "you" anymore.  It's not like your mind would just be inhabiting a cat's body or something.  The only possible set of circumstances that could result in "you" are the set of circumstances of which you are currently a product.

Oh my god, did you really just tell me that my mind couldn't have been inside of a cat? UGH!! I know that. I'm just saying... holy crap how do I even rephrase this differently anymore? Is there any scenario where a person could have not become a person? Like, all the particles that make up our body from birth, they were present there from the big bang, they probably composed some sort of molecules floating around space before the earth was created. The particles in my body probably existed in some form or another from way before I was even born. All of these molecules go into creating one thing or another, and yes a lot of species on earth are related and I could have become a cat, or a monkey, or whatever. But those molecules could also just be sitting there inside of a rock, I could have never come to be. I was just thinking, why am I sitting here right now and not just some primordial substance sitting around somewhere else, not formed into a human being?

---

So, I have been wondering for some time why I was born me and not someone or something else. Doesn't it seem a bit strange, to have come into the consciousness of a body? We just happen to be one animal out of so many species of animal that have existed on this planet. I wonder how it all came to be, how I was born me and not a dog, and why do I feel consciousness when there's trillions of cells in my body that don't have brains of their own. My hands, my feet, they all have living organisms inside of them, and somehow these are a part of me? It's all so strange, I wish that there were some answers to basically explain my existence.

Or hell, there's so many types of matter, I could have just as easily have been a rock.

Maybe you WERE born as someone else instead of you! How would you know the difference?

Mind blown.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, I think I found a better way to state the question. Everything from the start of the universe, all the particles in the known universe come from the big bang, or as carl sagan would say, we're all made of star dust. So if I'm just made of star dust, and the rock around me or the cup on my desk are also made of star dust, then out of all the other matter on earth that came from the same place, why did I just happen to become a human being? All the hamburgers that everyone consumes that become babies that mothers give birth to, that came from the hamburgers that their mothers made. I guess it's sort of comforting in a way, because even if your consciousness is destroyed, even if all your memories are disintegrated, once you decompose you go back to the stuff that made you up in the first place. I just wonder, what was the journey like from me being inanimate material to becoming a living, sentient organism.

Remember that you are throughout your life not even made of the same atoms - they get exchanged all the time. In your sense, you're not even the same person as you were a few years ago.

I know that molecules in your body exchange for new ones.

[FatAndFaithless]

You couldn't be born as a different species because then you wouldn't be "you" anymore.  It's not like your mind would just be inhabiting a cat's body or something.  The only possible set of circumstances that could result in "you" are the set of circumstances of which you are currently a product.

Oh my god, did you really just tell me that my mind couldn't have been inside of a cat? UGH!! I know that. I'm just saying... holy crap how do I even rephrase this differently anymore? Is there any scenario where a person could have not become a person? Like, all the particles that make up our body from birth, they were present there from the big bang, they probably composed some sort of molecules floating around space before the earth was created. The particles in my body probably existed in some form or another from way before I was even born. All of these molecules go into creating one thing or another, and yes a lot of species on earth are related and I could have become a cat, or a monkey, or whatever. But those molecules could also just be sitting there inside of a rock, I could have never come to be. I was just thinking, why am I sitting here right now and not just some primordial substance sitting around somewhere else, not formed into a human being?

...Because "you" are defined by what you are now.

And "Is there any scenario where a person could have not become a person?" makes...no sense.  If a person wasn't a person, it wouldn't have been a person in the first place, so no.  

I mean, some of your old skin cells that you used to have are probably in a tree or rock or bug somewhere, but those skin cells aren't "you."